[محمد بن طارق:] كنتُ جالسًا بجانب أحمد بن حنبل، فسألتُه إن كان بإمكاني استعمال محبرته. 52.1

[Muḥammad ibn Ṭāriq:] I was sitting next to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and I asked him if I could use his inkpot. 52.1

نَظَرَ إِلَيَّ. «لَيْسَ أَيٌّ مِنَّا بِهَذَا القَدْرِ مِنَ التَّشَدُّدِ فِي الوَرَعِ»، قَالَ مُبْتَسِمًا.

He looked at me. “Neither one of us is as scrupulous as all that,” he said with a smile.

[يحيى بن معين:] لم أرَ مثلَ أحمدَ بنِ حنبل قط. جلسنا معه خمسين سنة، فما مرّةً واحدةً تعالى بتقواه وصلاحه علينا. 52.2

[Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn:] I never met anyone like Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. We sat with him for fifty years, and never once did he hold his piety and goodness over us. 52.2

[صالح:] كثيرًا ما رأيتُ أبي يأخذ القَدُوم ويذهب إلى حجرات المستأجرين ليقوم بأعمالٍ بيديه. وكان يذهب إلى البقّالين فيشتري حزمة من الحطب أو غيره، ويحملها بنفسه إلى البيت. [52]3

[Ṣāliḥ:] I often saw my father pick up an adze and go over to the tenants’ rooms to take care of jobs with his own two hands. He would go to the grocers and buy a bundle of kindling or whatever, and carry it back himself. 52.3